


Roundtable

by Kheru



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Modern / High School AU, some characters are wildly OOC, the canon is actually a dnd session
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24742075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kheru/pseuds/Kheru
Summary: Roll for initiative!A small idea I had a while back... what if the event we see in the series were actually the result of a DnD session?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Roundtable

**Author's Note:**

> Heya everyone, first time posting on AO3 but not my first fanfic, this is just a little one-shot I hope you'll enjoy!

_Surrounded on all side by the shadows and trees making the Emerald Forest, Yang was walking around, mostly aimless. She had yet to find a partner, and as such, wasn’t that much in a hurry. Plus, she had just blasted through the skies using nothing but the recoil of her gauntlets to keep her afloat, and right now her arms felt a little sore. The rest of her was thrilled, blood pumping with adrenaline, eagerness almost spilling out of her in waves._

“Heloooooooo?” _she asked, dragging the last sound in hopes of catching someone’s attention. “Is anyone out here?”_

_She stopped, throwing one last glance around for good measure, then threw her arms up in an exasperated gesture._

“I’m getting bored here!” _She loudly proclaimed, only to be answered by an abrupt rustling in the bushes. “Is someone here?”_

_She hesitantly took a few steps toward the shaking leaves, peeling her eyes to try and see whatever was pointedly hiding yet making so much noise._

“Ruby, is that you?” _she half-heartedly tried._

_A terrifying roar rose, forcing her to take a step back, and her head swiveled upward to follow the white bone-mask of the bear-like creature facing her in all of its powerful monstrosity._

“Nope!” _she concluded, perhaps a bit late._

“And with that, I’ll ask you to roll for initiative.” Ozpin’s eyes glistened behind his put-together game master screen, quickly sweeping over the four girls facing him, all of which were listening intently.

Seeing no reaction from his audience, he stared a little more intently at the blonde sitting dead center, all smiles and visibly no idea what to do. He was about to remind her of what exactly his sentence meant, when the smaller brunette sitting at her right lightly elbowed her in the side, nodding toward their shared dice tray.

“Oh, right!” she blurted out, startled. “Uh… Which one is it again?”

“The d20.” The comment had come from the opposite corner of the table, rather timidly with that.

It had come from the only other experienced player on the table, that was currently sharing her dice set with the platinum blonde they had found intently looking at their game from a corner of the library. And promptly beckoned over as they were one player short anyway. A quick nod, a quick roll, and a half muttered curse followed the words, as the player quickly scanned her character sheet in search of the precious information she needed.

“That can’t be good… Eleven?” The inquisitive tone was dismissed by a simple nod from the game master, as he had already rolled his own dice.

“The Ursai will go first.”

Everyone cringed slightly, despite being unfamiliar enough with the game to ignore what exactly was an Ursai. Ruby lightly patted Yang’s arm, muttering something along the lines of “Good luck sis!” before she sat back in her chair with a smile, curious to see how that would turn out. She had done a test run with Ozpin the week before, as had every player individually, mostly to see if they liked the concepts and mechanics, but also to help those very new to tabletop RPG to perfect their character. She knew from that small test run – well, three test runs technically, she had been requested to help with other player’s initiation in the world, mostly because of her enthusiasm – that Ozpin was a good game master and a good storyteller.

She had to admit, however, that it was a little odd to use everyone’s real name in-character as well. It was slightly harder to get into the role when both the scythe-wielding speedster and the nerdy engineering student were called Ruby, but it seemed to make it easier for first-time players to get invested in the story? Yang had decided to be… well… Yang, in and out of character. Enthusiastic, bubbly, outgoing and sometimes overbearing, it didn’t take her much effort to roleplay, even if she did try her very best at it. Blake, the only other one around the table that was familiar with dungeons and dragons, seemed to fill her character very well, although Ruby couldn’t tell if it was because she both were close, or if she simply was that good of an actor. She didn’t know much of the person behind the twinkling eyes and the mischievous smirk, after all.

What had truly surprised her was Weiss. Weiss who they practically had to drag to their table, Weiss who had timidly tried to protest, Weiss who had blushed and insisted that she didn’t want to impose. She had very much looked like a deer caught in headlights for most of the current game, for all intent and purpose trying to make herself as small as possible and constantly apologizing when she borrowed one of Blake’s dice. Weiss who had literally transformed as soon as she had to interpret her character, flicking her long almost white hair behind her ears and huffing, suddenly oozing confidence and superiority. From the unimpressed glare that wasn’t even softened by the square reading glasses to the semi-scowl permanently frozen on her features, she had suddenly become the ice-cold heiress she had made her character be, flooring every other player around the table.

And then she had started speaking.

And everyone, this time including Ozpin, had to pick their jaw up from the floor as they found no trace of the timid, kind Weiss in this voice. The illusion had quickly been broken as Weiss had immediately backed down, features softening as she asked if she had made a mistake, but the talent remained, and after a brief inquiry from Ozpin, they pursued the game. Trying really hard not to jump every time Weiss would slip on her heiress mask and barely believing that someone could pull that, even a theatre kid.

“What, you want some too?!”

Yang’s expletive brought her back to the battle ongoing, and her eyebrow shot up as she saw that one of the two tokens representing the Ursai had been removed from the sketched map. One down, already? Or had she been lost in thoughts longer than she had assumed? Ozpin opened his mouth to say something, when suddenly, Blake piped up.

“I would like to make a sneak attack on the remaining Ursai.”

“Right, you would have caught up with Yang at that point. Sneak attack then, with Gambol Shroud I assume?”

“Pistol mode, I don’t want to get to close.”

“Let’s see…” he briefly counted under his breath, before nodding. “You’re in range. Roll for your attack?”

“Let’s see…” Blake muttered, before rolling the dice expectantly.

Her eyes rounded in shock, before she smiled, not unlike a predator seeing a defenseless prey.

“Natural twenty,” she smugly announced while crossing her arms.

“That definitely hits! Roll for damage?”

More muttering, rolling of dice and whispered counting happened before she announced the total of damage. Correction: the INSANE amount of damage she had just dealt. With a brief pause and a small comment on how sneak damage was one hell of an asset, Ozpin’s eyes flicked through his paper before he spoke again.

“Yang, all you see for a moment is the creature facing you going completely still. Then, slowly, it falls to the ground without as much as a growl and starts dissolving into black mist, a blade deeply plunged in its back. Said blade is promptly yanked away and back to its owner via the black ribbon tied around its grip, and your eyes fall on…” he trailed off, slightly gesturing toward Blake.

“A very smug girl with amber eyes and a black bow. That’s probably the most fitting description right now,” Blake smiled, indeed sporting a terribly proud smirk.

“I could’ve taken him,” Yang shrugged lightly after a very short pause.

Ruby snorted, trying her best to hold in her laughter at her sister’s antics. To the point, she almost missed Ozpin briefly making eye contact with the student sitting all the way over the library, and slightly nodding.

“And with that, I believe our session comes to an end,” he smiled, nodding at the indignant cries that followed immediately. “Will I see you all next week?”

Everyone vigorously approved, even Weiss showing a lot more enthusiasm than they expected her to, and Yang adding an excited “you bet!” for good measure as they all had evidently had a blast playing. Ruby couldn’t help but feel a smile creep over her face, satisfied as she was to see her plan working a lot better than intended. She had, truth be told, dragged a begrudging Yang into this session… and she was just so happy to see that her older sister was so eager to come back.

“So, what did you think?” she asked said sister as they started to make their way over to the other side of the library, intending to meet up with the last of their usual group.

“That was amazing! I didn’t know you could have that much fun rolling dice, and yet, here we are! Is it bad that I want to keep going for, like, hours?”

“Nah, that’s pretty normal if you really enjoyed it. I’m glad you had fun!”

“I have to say though…” Yang started, discreetly pointing at Ozpin that was still gathering his papers.

“Yes?”

“How the hell am I supposed to reconcile the image of a greying wizard throwing kids off a cliff with our resident math enthusiast?”

She burst out laughing abruptly. The two together were indeed, quite clashing, not to mention the effort Ozpin had put into schooling his expression and voice.

“I wonder what Salem’s character is like. If Ozpin’s anything to go by, our ‘resident gamer girl’ – she made air quotes as Yang rolled her eyes – is an older-than-the-universe five feet tall model of poise and self-control.”

It was Yang’s turn to chuckle, as the Salem they had briefly met was… anything but calm and poise. Excited, eager, enthusiast? All of those would apply to the blue-eyed, red-haired student that was almost vibrating on her seat as she wrapped up the session for their twin group. Both sisters stopped for a moment, far enough to not overhear whatever what happening on their table and long enough that Blake caught up with them. Weiss had promptly retreated to her corner of the library, this time with a slight smile on the lips, and Ozpin was visibly still trying to organize his gigantic folder of information. Soon enough, a series of groan erupted from the table they were watching, Salem’s expression sympathetic and full of regret as she ended their session as well.

It took all of a second for three out of four players to pack their belonging, quickly sliding their borrowed dice to the red-haired fourth player that then proceeded to store them away in a monstrously large pouch of dice. He was, without a doubt, a DnD enthusiast and a dice hoarder. And yet, Ruby knew for a fact that this leather dice cache was but a fraction of his real collection, the part he had decided for this game. Roman really liked his dice, nearly as much as he liked roleplaying. The more flamboyant and unhinged the role, the better.

She started making her way over to him, as the other player scattered, coincidentally much like her own group had. Salem was trying to get a hand on her belongings, struggling to find them and their original place, while the jade-eyed girl she barely knew – Emerald? – rapidly left the table to hide in another corner of the library, slightly blushing and pointedly looking away. Of the two people making a beeline toward her – or, more likely, toward Yang and Blake – one was Adam: a blue-eyed, red-haired boy with a soft smile that had been dragged to the game by Blake, much like she had dragged Yang. Or much like Yang had dragged her girlfriend, she supposed as said girlfriend rolled her eyes in reaction to Yang’s finger guns.

“You’re insufferable,” Cinder sighed despite her smile.

“Eh, I’d say you suffer me quite alright,” her sister teased, the rest of her tirade abruptly cut off when the newcomer quickly pressed a kiss to her lips.

“Don’t push it.”

Her tone was annoyed, but there was no denying the fond smile stretching her lips, nor the affection behind the back and forth banter. Shaking her head, Ruby briefly saw Blake and Adam animatedly discussing as they exited the library, before she turned her full attention to her long time friend, still in the process of picking up his precious collection.

“Well, little Red. It seems we meet again,” he said, mockingly taking the tone she now knew belonged to his current character.

With a smile, she got closer to the table. Really, today had gone really well- she couldn’t wait to see what exactly the two game masters had in store. Judging by the size of their folder and the sheer amount of time they had spent coming up with a world and a scenario, she guessed – and hoped – mind-blowing drama.


End file.
